Pentagon avoids questions

The Pentagon avoids questions as the US war with Iran escalates

Analysis by Brian Stelter

The public deserves transparency about the US war in Iran. But that’s not what we’re getting — not even close.

The Pentagon hasn’t held a press briefing in two and a half months. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hasn’t explained the military strategy behind the renewed air strikes. His department hasn’t revealed the circumstances that led to the recent deaths of US service members.

It’s all indicative of a larger effort to control information, limit access and avoid difficult questions about the war.

Pentagon press briefings were held regularly during past US conflicts, and military leaders often expressed respect (even if begrudgingly) for the media’s role and responsibility to inform service members, their families and the rest of the country.

But that feels like a vestige of a bygone era now. Hegseth has picked fights with the media, including his former employer, Fox News; has pushed the press corps out of the Pentagon complex; and has markedly reduced the free flow of information.

Hegseth’s public affairs office sought to replace (or at least supplement) experienced military beat reporters with MAGA media types last winter. But those Trump-aligned outlets aren’t getting access now, either. The most recent Pentagon press briefing was on May 5.

The public affairs office did not respond to a CNN request for comment about the briefing drought.

Military beat reporters say they are having to rely more heavily on anonymous sources — the same sources that Hegseth wants to prosecute. He announced a new anti-leaker task force last week.

“The chilling atmosphere has gotten worse since he launched his task force with DOJ,” a military reporter said. “Sources feel like they’ll be prosecuted for simply speaking with journalists.”

The reporter was granted anonymity to speak candidly about reporting techniques.

Anonymous sources fill in the blanks

Most of what we know so far about the recent deaths of US service members in Jordan and Iraq has been attributed to anonymous “officials.” Articles by major news outlets have stated that the Pentagon declined to comment.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Iran “carried out three other strikes” against US forces in Jordan in recent days, injuring dozens of service members and damaging several helicopters.

“But the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted,” Times reporter Eric Schmitt wrote.

Schmitt listed other examples of the government withholding information: “The Trump administration has failed to disclose how the Iran war has drained US supplies of critical, costly weapons, and how Iran retained and rebuilt substantial missile capabilities.”

Over the weekend, The Washington Post cited an official “speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media” who said the US is planning for a wider war, but who said, “We do not have enough to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the White House is aware of that.”

The obvious question: Did that person speak to the Post in order to alert the White House?

“From its initial shots, this war has been under-explained by the administration,” CNN’s Stephen Collinson wrote in a new analysis. “The return to something like full-scale aerial war after a ninth consecutive night of US air raids is no exception.”

Hegseth has said little about the US strikes. Lately he has just retweeted the bare-bones CENTCOM announcements. But he hasn’t been altogether quiet.

Last week, he made a web video to tout a new testosterone screening program for troops. He also announced that “joint task force to IDENTIFY AND PROSECUTE LEAKERS,” though when reporters asked for more information about it, the Pentagon did not engage.

Meanwhile, President Trump has continued to loudly boast about the US dominating Iran, and that’s causing some cognitive dissonance.

A video clip of Fox’s Maria Bartiromo made the social media rounds on Sunday.

“I don’t understand how it’s possible that Iran has the capabilities to fight this way and continue to try to lash out… because the US has obliterated Iran’s military, and the president continues to reiterate that,” Bartiromo said to a guest on her show.

Trump has used the word “obliterated” dozens of times since the start of the war. Bartiromo’s credulousness was widely derided by progressive critics on X. Hasan Piker shared the clip and asked: “How do Trump cultists live like this?”

Elsewhere on Fox, there has been some careful criticism of Trump’s escalation of the war.

But this exchange, for example, hasn’t aired on Fox at all. On Sunday night, AFP reporter Danny Kemp asked Trump, “On Iran, Mr. President, you said at the start of the war it would be four or five weeks” — and Trump interjected, “This is a far bigger job that we’re doing” now.